Kevin Warsh confirmed to US Federal Reserve board in close Senate vote

Kevin Warsh has been confirmed by the United States Senate to join the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors ahead of an expected vote that will have US President Donald Trump’s appointee lead the central bank.

The Senate vote on Tuesday passed 51-45, with a single Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, casting his vote with the Republican majority to confirm Warsh for a 14-year term.

The next step in the Senate confirmation process would be to confirm him for a four-year term as the central bank’s chair. The vote is expected as soon as Wednesday, ahead of the end of current Chair Jerome Powell’s term, which ends on Friday.

Independence in question

Warsh’s confirmation comes with questions about the central bank’s independence amid ongoing pressure by Trump to cut interest rates. In the Senate Banking Committee confirmation, Senator Elizabeth Warren accused Warsh, who served on the central bank’s Board of Governors in 2006-2011, of being a “sock puppet” for Trump, an assertion he has denied.

In December, Trump said he would only appoint someone to lead the central bank if they agreed with him on interest rates.

But the Fed chair has only so much control. He is one of 12 votes on the interest-rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee, and is one of 19 voices at the policy-setting table.

Warsh’s confirmation comes amid efforts this past year by the Trump administration to exert control over the Fed, including attempting to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook in a case now before the Supreme Court, and support for a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into Powell’s management of a building renovation that a federal judge ruled was a pretext for pressuring Powell to cut rates or resign.

The DOJ dropped its investigation, but its lead prosecutor in Washington says she could reopen it.

Powell plans to take the unusual step of staying on as governor after his term as chair ends in response to the “series of legal attacks on the Fed which threaten our ability to conduct monetary policy without considering political factors”, he said last month.

Changes ahead

Warsh says he plans “regime change” at the Fed, including tightening its coordination with the Treasury Department and the Trump administration on non-monetary policies and setting it on course for a smaller balance sheet, which he argues should allow for a lower policy rate.

A surge in oil prices since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran has pushed up inflation and pared investor expectations for an interest-rate cut this year. Currently, financial markets are pricing about a one-in-three chance of a rate hike by December. The Fed’s current target range for short-term borrowing costs is 3.5 percent to 3.75 percent.